My what big jaws you have. They’re used for biting into the flesh of prey, the teeth serrating the meat as the animal greedily gulps down its meal. So whose jaws rate the best? Read on to see who takes a bite out of the competition.

Carcharadon megalodon

More than a million years ago, this whale eating predator swam the oceans. Growing up to 52 feet in length and weighing more than 100 tons, the jaws of this shark would be something to fear. The sheer size of the animal is what would have made its bite ferocious and lethal. It is estimated that it could have had a bite force between 10-18 tons. Since its jaws were made of cartilage instead of bone, the flexibility of its jaws increases the gape of its bite. This would make for a more devastating attack on prey. It was known to have bitten the tails and fins off of whales, allowing it to bleed out before pursuing it in its final moments.

Hyenas

Often thought to be part of the cat or dog family, these mean devils make up their own family, the Hyaenidae. Even though they only have a bite pressure of 1000 pounds per square inch, for its body weight, these bad boys have the meanest set of jaws of any land animal. A common misconceptions is that hyenas are mostly scavengers. They are in fact formidable hunters, capable of taking down large prey. Some have even been able to take down lions, with a female leading the pack. Their teeth are capable of crushing bones, teeth, horns and hooves of their prey. They eat so much bone, that their feces is often white.

Hippo

It has 4 canine-like teeth the size of a man’s forearm. They’ve been known to kill up to 200 people a year. While they are bulky in size, they have a bite force of 1,800 pounds. It’s not a fast bite like a shark, but a more slower, deliberate chomp. While a larger crocodile could ambush a baby hippo and take it down, a larger adult hippo is easily capable of biting a 10 foot crocodile in half. So when a hippo yawns and bears its teeth, its time to scram.

Big Cats

Tigers on average have a force bite stronger than lions, but not by much. Lions average in at about 950 pounds per square inch, while tigers at about 1,000. And while a lion looks bigger, it’s only because of its mane. If you shaved the little puddy tat, it’d pale in comparison to a tiger. The tiger is the largest of the cats, and is definitely more cunning and agile. Either way, the big cats are engineered for having jaws that can crush the throats of their prey. Tigers, who have longer teeth, have even been known to take down female brown bears, and Asiatic elephants.

Great Whites

They have some of the meanest choppers on the planet. Its force bite is only 1.8 tons, about 20 times more powerful than a human. But the fact that it has razor sharp teeth that is able to saw into the flesh of its prey as it swings it around like a puppet, makes the great white a formidable hunter. The multiple rows of teeth are serrated like knives, which requires little force to enable them to bite or chomp at prey.

Crocodile

While they have a bite force of between 2,500-5,000 pounds per square inch, they mainly rely on ambush and stealth. Their jaws hold onto the prey once they snap shut. By rolling and subduing prey, crocodiles are capable of tearing and holding onto the flesh of prey. However, if a man were to hold a crocodile’s mouth shut with his own hands, it wouldn’t take much effort.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Their teeth are gargantuan in terms of teeth. It’s estimated to have a bite force of about 1,400-3,011 pounds of force. That’s like the force of a pick-up truck behind each tooth coming down on you. But because they were a bit awkward with their gape, many scientists speculate that they were mainly scavengers, and if they did hunt, it was smaller prey.